The Flying Karamazov Brothers' Comedy of Errors

June 23, 2007 4:46 PM

In 2003, the Flying Karamazov Brothers workshopped a piece with The Bobs entitled "The Comedy of Eras". In 1992, they performed a show about Le Pétomane billed as "A Comedy of Airs". And in 1983, they started the cycle by creating a vaudeville adaptation of Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors". When they brought this adaptation back to the stage in 1987, PBS aired a performance live from Lincoln Center. Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of that broadcast, and if you enjoy good juggling or bad Shakespeare, you can celebrate by watching it online: part 1, part 2. (Last two links are Google Video, about an hour each.)
posted by hades (16 comments total)

Oh my GOODNESS, thank you hades! I have a videotape of this from 1987, and it's in awful condition. Now I just have to figure out how to steal this video from google set aside some time to enjoy this video.
posted by tzikeh at 5:23 PM on June 23, 2007

Thanks for this. Two of the most enjoyable nights of my childhood were spent watching FKBs perform in a school gym. They were awesome.
posted by OmieWise at 5:25 PM on June 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

Related thread about the fartist
posted by phoque at 5:31 PM on June 23, 2007

Now I just have to figure out how to steal this video from google

Download Google Videos As AVI Files
posted by puke & cry at 5:33 PM on June 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

puke & cry - thanks, but that's Windows only :(
posted by tzikeh at 5:40 PM on June 23, 2007

I have like 5 CDs full of videos (SFW, kthx) I downloaded from Google, all on Linux.
posted by DU at 6:27 PM on June 23, 2007

Party of my nerdy childhood involved wearing a Flying Karamazov Brothers t-shirt all the time until it had pit stains and started fraying,
posted by Falconetti at 6:30 PM on June 23, 2007

I too have a video of this that's in terrible condition. Thx.
posted by brevator at 6:45 PM on June 23, 2007

This is great, but I'm still waiting for someone to put William Wegman and Michael Smith's World of Photography (from PBS, around the same time) up somewhere. That's my holy grail.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 8:34 PM on June 23, 2007

I saw the show about Le Pétomane, goddamn that was awesome.
posted by piratebowling at 9:29 PM on June 23, 2007

It's weird how cigarettes on television seem so out of place now.
posted by empath at 11:22 PM on June 23, 2007

Man. Saw them twice at Arena Stage in DC with my folks as a kid and got the juggling bug. I challenge anyone to name a nerdier endeavor short of unicycling and mime. Great post.
posted by docpops at 7:02 AM on June 24, 2007

I met these guys at a friend of mine's house when I was a little kid. I think his mom had dated one of them or something, they went way back. I remember their show was one of the coolest things I has seen up to that point in my life. So many people in the audience had brought stuff for them to juggle, and I think they ended up using a garden hose, a wicker basket, and a cake. Thanks for the post.
posted by Who_Am_I at 7:38 AM on June 24, 2007

Wonderful. Thank you.
posted by Alec at 10:31 AM on June 24, 2007

I saw Paul Magid and Howard Patterson perform at a bar mitzvah in 1973, just as they were getting started at UC Santa Cruz. What's even stranger is when I hear news about Paul and his mother from my mom.
posted by Araucaria at 11:28 AM on June 24, 2007

Sigh. I've seen these guys once--our juggling club, Students Against Gravity, opened for them in a quick 15-minute performance at Washington University. We sucked. Hard. But it was worth it to see them perform the Questions Game from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead while landing hackey sacks on each other's heads.
posted by darksasami at 1:10 PM on June 25, 2007